Yet another winter is nearing to Red County, with all its cold, snowy wintriness. And just like every year, we're going to roleplay the effects of it globally, so get ready to get stuck in snow, shiver from the cold and carry a flashlight to use during the long winter nights! Here's a quick summarisation of how it will work exactly, for those of you who weren't with us last winter. For the whole month of December (or longer if the general playerbase wishes so) administrators will be announcing weather conditions via asays, and every online player will have to take them into account and roleplay accordingly. These asays will mostly contain a change of the
snow level - a value that will tell you what kind of effects you're supposed to roleplay. For example, at snow level 1 there is very little snowfall and you're allowed to drive cars quite fast and fly helicopters, however at snow level 3 there will be loads of snow on the roads, you won't be able to operate any aircraft and you'll have to drive your car fairly slow.
The current snow level can be checked by using the command
/snowlevel - it will not give you a full explanation of what the level means though, you will need to look up this thread (the section below) to see what effects you're supposed to roleplay exactly. Not abiding by snow level rules usually results in a warning, or an admin jail if the warning is ignored or the player is already known for breaking snow rules. Each change of the snow level has to be announced by an administrator via /asay, so if you're online and you don't see any admin messages - the weather probably didn't change. However, it's still good practice to use the command every once in a while, just in case an asay was done while you were tabbed out, or in case you simply missed it. The snow level will no longer be included in the player MOTD (Message Of The Day), so make sure to use /snowlevel when joining the server. And in case there's still some veterans out there who remember the snow level being announced via the title of this very thread - this will no longer be done just like last year, as /snowlevel is much more efficient.
The snow levels are based on a CLEO modification called
SnowFX, which you should really install if you want to be fully immersed into the snowy winter world. The mod is not mandatory, although it greatly helps with roleplaying the snow levels properly. The modification has five levels of snow, ranging from 0 to 4, and each of them describes a different amount of snow falling from the sky and lying on the ground (0 being the lowest and 4 being the highest amount). The levels and the rules surrounding them are thoroughly described below. You are encouraged to set your snow level in the mod accordingly to the current roleplayed snow level. Also, there's the
SnowAndreas mod, which replaces most of the original game textures with snowy ones, basically adding snow all around the world. It is also not mandatory, but similar to the SnowFX mod - you're all encouraged to install it, as it lets you immerse yourself into the winter roleplay much more efficiently. Links to both modifications can be found at the end of this announcement.
Don't forget that winter roleplay gives you a large sum of completely new things and situations to roleplay. Use this opportunity to develop your character in new, unexplored ways, and roleplay passively with your friends whenever you get the chance. Here's a couple examples of winter-themed roleplay, in case you don't feel creative enough to think of your own ideas:
- Vehicles getting stuck in snow / on ice
- Wearing warm winter clothing
- Power outages caused by massive snowfalls
- Spilling ash / sand / salt on your driveway to fight ice
- Diesel vehicles refusing to start up in cold temperatures
- Car crashes caused by icy roads
- Plowing the snow
- Giving shelter to the homeless during large snowfalls
- Snowball fights / sledding
Anything you can imagine really.